Thief
by Merle's Right Hand
Summary: He was an insubordinate to his forbearers, a rebel amongst his peers, and a mad man with the desire to be more than what was expected of him. She was immediately intrigued.


_Doctor Who_ is obviously not mine, nor am I making any profit from this work of fiction; it is purely for entertainment purposes only.

_**Thief**_

The sound of a door closing had woken her. Well, she wasn't quite asleep either, not that she was really capable of it; something more like temporal stasis, indefinite stand-by. Put on hold. _Discontinued_.

Retirement was difficult when there was a significant lack of anything to do. Her last pilots had been less than adventurous, which was a shame because what little she'd actually seen of the universe had only whetted her appetite for more. Instead, here she sat, a Type-40, ancient and seemingly forgotten amongst her elder sisters, who all seemed to be rather _enjoying_ their permanent holidays, collecting dust and languishing away their remaining time.

Footsteps clacked softly against the floor, soft soled, as if whoever it was attempting to keep their location a secret. Perhaps it was out of sheer boredom or perhaps some sort of TARDIS fever, but she reached out with her telepathic link, searching for the individual lurking about this particular decommissioned TARDIS hold. And there, a mind that shimmered faintly of gold, mirroring her heart, bored and seeking adventure. She saw his hopes and dreams, the thirst he had for a life out among the stars, an attitude that held him completely at odds with those of Time Lord society. He was an insubordinate to his forbearers, a rebel amongst his peers, and a mad man with the desire to be more than what was expected of him. She was immediately intrigued.

Flipping the lock of her door, she drew him closer to her subliminally, letting him see the image of her bright blue police box exterior in his mind. She's visited Earth's England only once and had seen a 1960s era police box and had become quite enamoured with the design and rather favoured it over any other.

The creak of her door made her focus as a young Gallifreyan man entered the control room, gazing about in awe. He was dressed rather plainly, his attire wholly un-befitting of a Time-Lord, but he carried with him an air of enchantment. Wide eyed, he walked over to the console, touching the controls, letting his fingers trail over the buttons and levers there. He looked up in a sort of fascinated reverence as spoke softly, "You're the most beautiful thing I've ever known."

She hummed happily, the control room glowing around the man as he grinned, his eyes shinning with excitement. "I'm the Doctor, by the way and I think… I _think_ that I'm going out on a small adventure. Pop over to the Altuvian galaxy I've read so much about. What do you say? Can I borrow you for a tick?" He made his way round the console, fiddling with the different buttons as he went. She started the time rotor as he all but danced as he made his way round the controls and they both quickly dematerialized from the hold.

The Doctor hadn't been quite true to his word; they _had_ gone to see the Altuvian galaxy… and then they popped over to the T'joka world, a planet that consisted of one giant tree amid a great and vast ocean… _then_ a brief visit to the Crysaoan Nebula, and then oh, "just one more quick stop" at the Simmrely binary system, a lone uninhabited planet that somehow managed to exist between two rotating stars.

And that's how it was, a never ending cavalcade of "just one more stop", flitting from one planet or galaxy to the next. It went on that way for a very long time, but she could sense his loneliness, his need for another physical being there with him, traveling through space and time.

The Doctor had many companions throughout the years, all of them human or humanoid. They served to alleviate his desolation, especially after the Time War; he'd been rather melancholy after that, and rightfully so. She felt disconsolate as well; all of her sisters were dead. It seemed only fitting that they kept traveling together, the last of their kinds; the Doctor and the TARDIS.

The Doctor had changed as well, through out the years, cheating death and altering his appearance. He confided in her all of his fears and hopes, little odd bits of trivia about himself, his friends and family long dead. They both knew how unnecessary it was, she could read his thoughts, but she knew it was good for him to talk with no one else there.

He'd come across Earth long ago, a tiny speck of rock on the edge of the Milky Way galaxy, a small galaxy spinning through the cosmos. He became fascinated with Earthlings, and visited rather often. It was when he was on his ninth regeneration he'd first met her; human, all pink and yellow, _impossibly_ young compared to him. But she was brave, curious and cheeky at that and the TARDIS was immediately partial to her. However, there was something mysterious underneath all that was Rose Marion Tyler. Something enigmatic, effulgent and lupine.


End file.
